The EPIPHANY Project


ICR purchased a 44-node parallel computer named EPIPHANY when Dr. John R. Baumgardner joined the ICR staff in 2002. It has the power of a small mainframe computer and is used for large numerical simulations of various natural processes. Dr. Baumgardner was the main designer and user of the machine for simulating tectonic and genetic processes. He continued development of his TERRA code after leaving Los Alamos National Laboratories, where he simulated the earth’s mantle and crustal dynamics during the Genesis Flood. From this effort, Baumgardner contributed to the Catastrophic Plate Tectonics model1 and continued its development and explanation.2, 3

EPIPHANY was used heavily in the development of the genetics code Mendel. The main members of the GENE team were:

  John Sanford, Ph.D.
  John R. Baumgardner, Ph.D.
  Wesley Brewer, Ph.D.
  Paul Gibson, Ph.D.
  Walter ReMine, M.S.

Dr. Baumgardner collaborated with Dr. Sanford in the development of Mendel’s Accountant, a simulation of mutation processes in animals and people.4, 5 Dr. Wesley Brewer assisted Dr. Baumgardner in writing application software and display packages. Mendel’s Accountant demonstrated that mutations never lead to increases in fitness of a species, but rather to a decline. Depending upon the initial conditions, which can be specified in the model, the fitness will decline at a greater or lesser rate. EPIPHANY remained at ICR after Baumgardner left, but he continues to use the machine for further development of Mendel’s Accountant and TERRA.

Dr. Vardiman also uses EPIPHANY extensively, with Dr. Brewer’s assistance, to simulate various climates under revised boundary conditions. In particular, he has simulated heavy snowfall in the western mountains of the United States and hypercane development in the Middle East and Florida under warm sea-surface temperatures believed to have occurred during and following the Genesis Flood.6, 7, 8, 9

References

  1. Austin, S. et al. 1994. Catastrophic Plate Tectonics: A Global Flood Model of Earth History. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism. Walsh, R. E., ed. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship, 609-621.
  2. Baumgardner, J. R. 2003. Catastrophic Plate Tectonics: The Physics Behind the Genesis Flood. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Creationism. Ivey, R. L., Jr., ed. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship, 113-126.
  3. Baumgardner, J. R. and D. W. Barnette. 1994. Patterns of Ocean Circulation over the Continents During Noah's Flood. In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Creationism. Walsh, R. E., ed. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship, 77-86.
  4. Sanford, J. et al. 2008. Using Numerical Simulation to Test the Validity of Neo-Darwinian Theory. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship and Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 165-175.
  5. Sanford, J. et al. 2008. Mendel's Accountant: A New Population Genetics Simulation Tool for Studying Mutation and Natural Selection. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Creationism. Pittsburgh, PA: Creation Science Fellowship and Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 87-98.
  6. Vardiman, L. and W. Brewer. 2010. Numerical Simulation of Precipitation in Yosemite National Park with a Warm Ocean: A Pineapple Express Case Study. Answers Research Journal. 3 (2010): 23-36.
  7. Vardiman, L. and W. Brewer. 2010. Numerical Simulation of Precipitation in Yosemite National Park with a Warm Ocean: Deep Upper Low and Rex Blocking Pattern Case Studies. Answers Research Journal. 3 (2010): 119-145.
  8. Vardiman, L. and W. Brewer. 2010. Numerical Simulation of Precipitation in Yellowstone National Park with a Warm Ocean: Continuous Zonal Flow, Gulf of Alaska Low, and Plunging Western Low Case Studies. Answers Research Journal. 3 (2010): 209-266.
  9. Vardiman, L. and W. Brewer. 2011. A Well-watered Land: Numerical Simulations of a Hypercyclone in the Middle East. Answers Research Journal. 4 (2011): 55-74.

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